Grab-bags of eclectic programming, a hallmark of the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival since its inception 24 seasons ago, are always interesting in themselves, though in many cases the disparate works don’t necessarily hang together as an entity.
But the second concert in its four-concert weekly series, presented last weekend at the Crest Theatre in downtown Delray Beach, had an engaging symmetry about it, even though the works ranged from Baroque to Beethoven, late Romanticism and jazz, and had little if anything to do with each other.
One of the reasons these pieces fit together like nourishing items in a bento box was the second piece on the program, the Piano Quintet in F by the once well-known French composer Théodore Dubois (1837-1924), who is still remembered for his oratorio, The Seven Last Words of Christ, his organ music, and his composition textbooks. This quintet, written in 1905 when the French musical world had already moved on to the innovations of Ravel and Debussy, is a throwback to an earlier time. It breaks no new ground, but it is beautifully crafted, direct and sincere, and does not deserve oblivion. The festival musicians have done us all good service by reviving it.
The quintet is scored for piano, string trio and oboe, and is in a very traditionally oriented four movements. But what stood out was the quality of the melodies and the variety of colors Dubois got out of his five instruments. The second-movement Canzonetta, for instance, has a charming main theme that works its way through all the instruments and imparts a sense of relaxation, of a casual stroll on a sunny day with no particular place to go.
The slow movement, a Romantic effusion that stops just shy of mawkish, was tastefully played by the five musicians — oboist Sherie Aguirre, violinist Mei Mei Luo, violist René Reder, cellist Susan Moyer Bergeron and pianist Lisa Leonard — so that it came off lovely rather than overripe. Pianist Leonard gave the final movement — which quotes the second and third movements in good cyclic style — plenty of drive and forward motion, and the other four players responded with a light, muscular, thoroughly French interpretation of this elegant, attractive music. Sunday afternoon’s audience at the Crest loved it.
The program with another lighthearted work, the Sextet (in E-flat, Op. 71) of Beethoven, here arranged as a wind quintet by the longtime Israel Philharmonic bassoonist Mordechai Rechtman. Despite its late opus number, this is an early work of Beethoven, written when he was in his mid-20s. Although it was written largely to entertain and does not have the innovative edge of the works he would write later, like the Dubois it is well-crafted, pleasant and sweet.
Oboist Aguirre was joined by flutist Karen Dixon, clarinetist Michael Forte, hornist Ellen Tomasiewicz and bassoonist Michael Ellert for the Beethoven, which was played expertly. There isn’t a lot of drama in this music, and the requirement is simply to give us the sense of prosperous comfort that Beethoven’s audiences were looking for, and the five musicians did that to fine effect.
The second half opened with a fine arrangement of three of Georg Philipp Telemann’s Heldenmusik, or Heroic Marches. These pieces have been arranged many times from their original violin and organ frameworks and this concert featured one by the contemporary American composer James Stephenson, a longtime friend and colleague of several of the festival musicians, for piccolo trumpet and string quintet, here a string quartet plus a double bass. Trumpeter Marc Reese, now legendary for his standup shtick at festival concerts, talked the audience into applauding vociferously between movements so that he would feel appreciated and it would give him time to recover from his stratospheric parts. It was all in good fun, and it probably did give him a few more seconds to get his embouchure ready for the next piece.
And on Sunday, he played the three pieces quite well, with a big sound and that kind of celebratory attack we expect from Baroque brass music. Stephenson’s choice of accompaniment is just right: softer than the trumpet, the five string players are still forceful enough, particularly with the bass, to let the trumpet sit comfortably on top of a large cushion of sound. The three pieces, essentially a mini-sonata with majestic opener, a tender slow movement, and bustling finale, showed off Telemann’s gift for melody and confident expression very well.
The Telemann was followed by sections from a 20th-century American piece, Benny’s Gig, written for legendary clarinetist Benny Goodman by composer Morton Gould. The piece was performed in memory of longtime Festival supporter and attorney Stuart Bloch, who could be counted on each year to greet the audience at the beginning of the concerts.
He died earlier this year, and in honor of Bloch’s great love of jazz, Forte brought back four sections of the Gould (it was on a program a couple years back), paired with a transcription of a chorus from “Lester Leaps In,” as played by Bloch’s favorite jazzer, tenor saxman Lester Young, with Count Basie and the Kansas City Seven in historic recordings made in New York in 1939.
The Gould miniatures are sly, thoroughly professional classical nods to jazz and other pop forms such as the third piece, “Calypso Serenade,” a reminder of what radio was like just before the British Invasion. Forte’s light, fairly thin sound and his nimble technique served him well, to excellent accompaniment by bassist Jason Lindsay. The hommage to Pres and Bloch was just as engaging, with Linsday setting up a nice foundation for Forte to offer his touching and heartfelt tribute.
The concert closed with a Romantic masterwork, the Horn Trio (Op. 40) of Johannes Brahms, played by Tomasiewicz, Leonard and violinist Dina Kostic. Overall, this was a sensitive and not over-rouged Brahms, with tempos on the swift side in the opening, which in some performances gets done more like an adagio than an andante. Tomasiewicz sounded somewhat tentative in the early going, but she has a big, well-rounded sound that was heard to best effect in the trio of the second movement and the third movement in general.
Kostic and Leonard were fine partners to her, and the three gelled well throughout, with a sense of restraint and respect that nevertheless didn’t take away from the frequent emotional mysteries (particularly in the third movement) of the trio. The three women appeared to be having a terrific time in the finale, with its cross-rhythms and high spirits, and ended with a flourish and rapturous applause from the Crest audience.
The Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival’s third concert program continues tonight at 7:30 in the Eissey Campus Theatre on the campus of Palm Beach State College in Palm Beach Gardens, and repeats at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Crest Theatre in Delray Beach. Music by Haydn, Pierné, d’Indy, Chávez and Coleridge-Taylor is on the program. Tickets are $25; call 547-1070 or visit www.pbcmf.org.
Editor’s note: The posting of this review was delayed by technical issues.